One of New York’s most famous restaurants just got bigger by reaching into its own past. Katz’s Delicatessen, the 137-year-old institution on East Houston Street, has reopened the Ludlow Room — a 68-seat dining space that had been closed to the public since 1949 and spent the intervening decades as the deli’s giant walk-in refrigerator.

The reopening, unveiled in May 2026, restores a piece of the Lower East Side landmark that nearly every Katz’s customer for three generations passed without ever seeing.

From dining room to cold storage and back

The Ludlow Room last seated regular diners in 1949. As postwar demand for the deli’s pastrami, corned beef and brisket surged, Katz’s converted the space into an enormous walk-in refrigerator — a working back-of-house room rather than a public one. For decades afterward, essentially every piece of meat the deli served was weighed on a freight scale inside it.

That utilitarian second life is what made the room invisible to customers. The restoration brings it back as a dining space while nodding to its history: the Katz family spent more than a year rebuilding it with original tin ceilings, tiled floors and period-inspired lighting. The owners have described the result as a homage to the era rather than an exact replica — preserving the old-New York feel of the floors, walls, sconces and ceiling.

Easing the line

The practical motive is the deli’s defining problem: the crowds. Katz’s draws tourists and regulars in numbers that produce long lines, and the new seating is meant to relieve that pressure during peak hours and to keep the main floor from clogging when the deli hosts private bookings or film shoots — a recurring use for a room that has appeared in movies for decades.

The Ludlow Room will double as overflow seating and a rentable private dining room. Reservations are available for larger parties, and private-room rentals require advance notice, a set-menu selection and a deposit, the deli has said.

A working landmark

Katz’s has operated on the corner of Houston and Ludlow Streets since the late 19th century and remains one of the last of the city’s old Jewish delicatessens still drawing lines out the door. Its hand-carved pastrami, its ticket system and its “Send a Salami to Your Boy in the Army” wartime slogan have made it as much a New York landmark as a restaurant.

The Ludlow Room’s return adds capacity without altering the formula that has kept the deli running for well over a century. For a restaurant that has changed remarkably little, the news is characteristic: an expansion built not by adding something new, but by reopening a door that had been sealed for 77 years.

Verification

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Ludlow Room at Katz's?
A 68-seat dining space inside Katz's Delicatessen that had been closed to the public since 1949, when it was converted into a large walk-in refrigerator for the deli's meats.
Why was it closed in 1949?
Postwar demand for pastrami, corned beef and brisket pushed Katz's to convert the room into a giant walk-in cold-storage refrigerator, where its meats were weighed for decades.
What will the room be used for now?
Overflow seating during peak hours and a rentable private dining room. The added seats are meant to relieve the deli's famously long lines and free the main floor during private bookings and film shoots.
How was it restored?
The Katz family spent more than a year restoring it with original tin ceilings, tiled floors and period-inspired lighting — a homage to the era rather than an exact replica.